Cards Confidently Enter the "6 Week Black Hole"
Fri. June 17 - OTA's are officially over. The next time the entire team will get together will be July 31 when they set up camp in Flagstaff.

Welcome to the Cardinal news void - when hard-core Cardinal fans resort to scanning the Transactions list on their daily sports page, buying up all the preseason annuals and listening avidly to their local sports highlight shows in hope of picking up miniscule scraps of news and info about their favorite team.

What's to say? All we can suggest is that you can refocus on perfecting your beach tan, getting absorbed in the MLB pennant race, spending some time hiking in the woods, sprucing up the hard drive on your PC and stuff like that.

A few thoughts as the Cards wrap up OTA's:

Coach Green has commented that - other than Kurt Warner - he will not publish a list of starters. We think he means it. When you scan this year's version of the expanded Cardinal roster, you realize that there's legitimate competition for jobs at virtually every position. True, you can - with a wink and a nod - make educated guesses. But we wouldn't be surprised if more than a couple of backup players step up and become surprise starters. We are at that time of year when past press clippings and recent rookie hype pale in comparison to results on the field. In this respect, each player is just like any other.
We liked the "body language" of the responses by Cardinal players to the annual question posed by FoxSportsNet about "how are you going to spend your '6-week vacation?' Without prompting and to a man, the standard response was that, after a couple of weeks with family, the rest of the time would be spend focusing on remaining sharp and in shape to get ready for next season. (Trust us; it's not always this way. This year, we get the feeling that the players on this team smell the red meet of success and don't want to be the ones who screw it up).
X's and O's wonks will be in for surprises on both sides of the ball this coming season. Expect everything to be executed "full-tilt" and geared toward keeping the opposition consistently back on its heels. Our offensive mindset will be more like that of our defense, and our defense will be even moreso. All you have to do is take a look up and down the defensive roster and what you see are many, many interchangeable parts - under tackles who can play defensive ends. Defensive ends who can play linebacker. Linebackers who can play strong safety. Safeties who can play corner (& vice versa). (Opposing OC's facing the Cardinals had better be prepared to be ready for the proverbial "kitchen sink" to be thrown at them early and often).
Cards have already signed their 7th round (McCoy) and 5th round (Mitchell) draft picks. You get the feeling that Rod Graves and Michael B now have the drill down pat and that there are no anticipated problems getting our rookies signed and in camp on time.
Enjoy the next 6 weeks and try to survive the boredom.